Labor Day Weekend: Friday

This past weekend I made my way to New England for a grand old time! The drive was very uneventful for the most part. There were hilarious billboards in Pennsylvania. Some of my favorites included: "You'll find Jesus here! Take the next exit!" and then two billboards later (before the exit), "Porn is the road to hell! Take the next exit!" I had a good chuckle over this one because I think whoever created these billboards forget to add a little bit more information on the second billboard. If not, the town had two roads, one that leads to Jesus where you can meet him and one that leads to hell where you can meet Satan. I have to say that the little town in Pennsylvania must be mountaining!

I reached New York City about 10, which was sooner than I was expecting and was planning to get to Mollie's house in Connecticut early; however, the forces of nature had something else in mind. I stopped for gas. A gas attendant was filling up everyone's tank so I let him fill up mine, while I went to the bathroom. Well, as you can imagine, I turned off my car and ran into the bathroom. I came out to my car with the tank full, the doors shut, and my keys locked in the car. I have a habit of locking my doors whenever I get out of my car. I must have forgotten my keys in my car because I wasn't really planning on getting out until I decided to quickly run to the bathroom. I then had to call a locksmith. They were 30 minutes away so I had to wait for them. Then instead of sending a locksmith, the dispatch sent a tow truck. The tow truck then had to go back to dispatch to get the tools to open my car. In the meantime, I was sitting on the side of the road next to a gas station. It was awesome. Then the locksmith told me it would be $60 to unlock my car. I only had $38 on me because I had to pay tolls. The ATM in the gas station was out of money and they had a no cash back policy, which made me mad. I then had to walk a mile down the road to the next closest ATM. It was an awesome evening. After about an hour at the gas station, I finally got on the road again.

I only drove for about 5 minutes then I missed an exit and got lost near Columbia Medical School. Luckily I had explored the area thoroughly when I was there last year and knew my way around, but the exit I needed to get back onto the freeway was closed. Barbara (my GPS) was getting mad at me and kept telling me to turn around and take the ramp. I kept driving and somehow ended up in the Bronx without the help of Barbara. It was late (after 11) and people were out and about. I was nervous that they were going to come up to my car because I have Utah plates and could be an easy target so I locked all of the doors 5 times. I finally got on the freeway again and made my way to Cromwell. Mollie was waiting up for me and I finally arrived at 12:30. It was a long, yet fun drive. I was glad that it had ended. Mollie and I talked for a bit. Then we went to bed so we could be ready for our day of adventuring in Cromwell and Cambridge the next day.